A NOVEL by MARGARET MENDEL

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Monthly Archives: September 2014

Helena Fairfax was born in Uganda and came to England as a child. She’s grown used to the cold now, and these days she lives in an old Victorian mill town on the edge of the Yorkshire moors.

Before beginning her writing career Helena studied for a degree in languages. She’s a qualified translator as well as a writer, but most of all Helena enjoys using her language skills to create strong heroines and romantic heroes. Her way with words led readers to vote one of her scenes ‘the most romantic love scene ever.’

When not writing, Helena loves walking the moors with her dog, enjoying the changing seasons, and thinking up what happens next.

Helena is the author of The Silk Romance and The Antique Love. Her next novel, A Way from Heart to Heart, is due out on 14th December 2014 – just in time for a romantic Christmas!

The Influence of Setting

I live in Yorkshire, in the north of England, in the place known by Yorkshire folk as God’s Own County. (We don’t suffer from typical British modesty here in Yorkshire – as you can tell!)

The Yorkshire moors have formed the setting for many novels, and most famously for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. When people talk of the moors they often mention their bleakness. Not much grows in this wild landscape except heather, bracken and gorse. But Charlotte Brontë wrote: ‘My sister Emily loved the moors. Flowers brighter than the rose bloomed from the blackest heath for her. Out of a sudden hollow in the hillside, her mind could make an Eden. She found in the bleak solitude many and dear delights, and best loved was liberty.’

Walking the moors every day is a big part of my routine as a writer. Here I find space and solitude; my mind can roam free, waiting for ideas to settle. As I walk, I often wonder if my surroundings have had an influence on the way I write. I like to write stories that are full of real life emotion and drama, and the dramatic landscape of the moors is a perfect reflection of that.

I haven’t always used the moors as a setting, but when I look back over my writing, I realise that some of my most pivotal scenes have taken place outdoors, in a dramatic landscape. The hero of The Antique Love, for example, is from the mountains of Wyoming, and finds himself living in London, one of the most congested cities in the world. I gave Kurt a home near one of London’s largest green spaces, in Richmond Park. In this wide, open landscape, Kurt, too, could open himself up to the heroine – something I couldn’t imagine him doing whilst walking the city’s busy streets.

I wonder how my writing would have been if I lived in Tokyo, say, or Berlin, or any other big city. Would I still have the urge to write dramatic and wildly romantic scenes? Or would the cityscape change my writing altogether?

What do you think? Are you a writer, and do you think your environment influences how you write? When you’re reading, is there a particular style of writing that you are drawn to?

I’d love to hear your comments!

The Antique Love, by Helena Fairfax

One rainy day in London, Wyoming man Kurt Bold walks into an antique shop off the King’s Road and straight into the dreams of its owner, Penny Rosas. Kurt certainly looks every inch the hero…but he soon brings Penny’s dreams to earth with a thump. His job is in the City, in the logical world of finance – and as far as Kurt is concerned, romance is just for dreamers.

But when Kurt hires Penny to help refurbish his Victorian house near Richmond Park, it’s not long before he starts to realise it’s not just his home she’s breathing life into. The logical heart he has guarded so carefully all these years is opening up to new emotions, in a most disturbing way…

Though Thelma was born in in Massachusetts, she considers Norfolk, VA., the Outer Banks of NC and the mountains of Sewanee TN, her home training grounds. A member of the Mystery Writers of America and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, she writes novels of espionage, psychopaths and human trafficking. She is a former Executive Management Consultant, poet, dramatist and book reviewer.

A CRY FOR THE BELOVED COUNTRY . . . . .

Few of us have dry eyes when we gaze on the stunningly beautiful site of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Pacific Arch and the Rainbow Pool, set between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, are breathtaking. . .

This incredibly moving site, a national memorial dedicated to Americans who served in the Armed Forces and labored as civilians during World War II, the 56 pillars and a pair of mall triumphal arches draw our attention and quiet thanks for all who served. . . the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Coast Guard, all fought and died to preserve our lives here now. The names are visible … of the 48 States of 1945, as well as the District of Columbia, the Alaska Territory, the Territory of Hawaii, the Commonwealths of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin islands … each a reminder of what might have been lost – had we lost the war. . . . . .

I stand in awe of this hallowed place, not only for what it represents, but for the long, deep personal memories it evokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Those days and nights of “The War” were filled with sights and sounds that remain as long as life. . .

– The sight of the German prisoners, each no older than we were. . . imprisoned in the rear of Navy trucks on the streets around the Naval Base in Norfolk. Were those KIDS the Hated Nazis????

TODAY I welcome SHELLEY FREYDONT to PUSHINGTIME.COM. Shelley is a former professional dancer and choreographer. She most recently worked on the films, Mona Lisa’s Smile and The Game Plan. She lives near the New Jersey shore where she loves to discover new beaches and indulge her passion for lighthouses and vintage carousels.

Under the name of SHELLEY NOBLE she is the NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling Author of the women’s fiction novel BEACH COLORS, a #1 Nook bestseller, STARGAZEY POINT, BREAKWATER BAY and several tie-in novellas, Holidays at Crescent Cove, Stargazey Nights, and Newport Dreams.

As SHELLEY FREYDONT she is the author of the CELEBRATION BAY FESTIVAL MYSTERIES (Berkley Prime Crime). And the upcoming Gilded Age Newport mystery series beginning with A Gilded Grave. SHINY THINGS by Shelley Freydont

In a study released last week, scientists at the University of Exeter debunked the myth that magpies steal shiny things. That in actuality unfamiliar items repel them. I could have told them it isn’t the much-maligned magpies stealing shiny things, its authors. Our literary trove is made up of found objects, situations, and characters—all manner of shiny things. See a sunset, store it away, that kid on the beach hitting his friend on the head with a plastic shovel; I could use that somewhere. The girl that just walked by with fishnets tattooed on her legs, hmm, that might come in handy. Or, the balloon drifting across the sky, I think I remember a book about a red balloon.

Authors are notorious for people watching, weather watching, listening in on conversations, smelling odors that repel others, or aromas to fall in love with . . . and write about. They are those people staring off into space or at something no one else sees, while their friends have gone into the restaurant without them or have completely lost them in a crowd.

Authors are the ultimate hoarders with files of old newspaper clippings or digital links to something interesting.

A door with the doorknob missing, there’s a story there.

The little lady dressed for winter as though it’s summer, feeding the seagulls from a paper bag. Now there’s a character.

A whistle warns drivers and pedestrians that the drawbridge is lifting, is that a fishing boat? Did they catch anything?

Really it could drive you a little . . . you know. But one day, you’re staring at that computer screen thinking—oh wait a minute, you’re not thinking; you don’t have an idea in your head. And suddenly that little boy with the shovel jumps out and starts telling you his side of what happened. And you place your fingers on the keyboard and listen.

An abandoned baby, a glorious old Newport mansion, and awakening romance combine in Breakwater Bay, an engaging story that echoes the flair, humor, and emotional depth of Kristin Hannah’s popular novels.

Preservationist Meri Hollis loves her latest project, restoring one of Newport’s forgotten Gilded Age mansions. And with summer approaching, she’ll be able to spend more time with her Gran on the Rhode Island shore. She has a great job, a loving family and she’s pretty sure her boyfriend is going to propose on her thirtieth birthday.

But everything Meri believes about family, happiness, truth and love is shattered when her family’s darkest secret is exposed.

Thirty years before, Meri’s neighbor and friend, Alden Corrigan, took his father’s dinghy out to fish. In a sudden storm, he rushed to help a woman stranded on the breakwater. She was just a girl . . . a very pregnant girl who disappeared soon after they reached safety—But not before she left behind a very special gift.

Now that the truth it out, life will change for everyone in Breakwater Bay, and Meri and Alden will have to make decisions that could insure their future together . . . or separate them for good.